Emissions

Analysis and Comment (39)

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On the international stage, China is reluctant to cut emissions. Back home, its new emissions trading scheme will be the world’s second largest. Flickr/peregrinari

Carbon trading in the Asian Century: China’s ETS on track

By Alex Lo, Griffith University

In the United Nation’s annual climate change conference held in Doha last December, delegates from 194 countries came together at the last minute to extend the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol is a legally…
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In the short term, reducing demand could be bad for the environment, but the long-term view is brighter. Gustavo Durán

Reducing peak demand: lowering prices, but what about emissions?

By Glen Wright

The past year has seen several processes to reduce the price of electricity to consumers. Each has highlighted the importance of “demand management” – consumers reducing use at peak times to reduce the…
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Our opportunity to keep temperature rises below two degrees may have slipped away. Ged Carroll

The widening gap between present emissions and the two-degree target

By Pep Canadell, CSIRO

The 2012 global carbon emission summary released today shows an ever-widening gap between rising emissions and the steps necessary to keep global temperatures within the generally agreed – but increasingly…
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Everyone seems nervous to talk about changing our diets. Sumlin/Flickr

Why aren’t we talking about meat and climate change?

By Judith Friedlander, University of Technology, Sydney

Reducing your carbon footprint by eating less red meat rarely gets attention. This strategy has been recommended by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, epidemiologists writing in The Lancet and…
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Sold to the lowest bidder! The carbon price will not transform Australia’s power supply without further steps to help low-emission technologies into the market. Flickr/sashafatcat

Low-emission’s missing link: reverse auctions for clean power

By Tony Wood, Grattan Institute

When it comes to reducing emissions, most serious analysts agree: the market works best, but the market is not enough. The International Energy Agency, the OECD, leading British climate economist Nicholas…
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Nice when a few sandstone houses get smoking, but what are people breathing in bigger rural towns where wood stoves are common? Flickr/welshmackem

Should we worry about winter chimney haze in rural towns?

By Graeme Palmer

Winter in many Australian country towns is accompanied by a pall of smoke from wood-fired heaters that lasts from late afternoon to the following morning. In larger towns and cities burning wood has been…
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The media tends to portray Chinese achievements as lacking credibility. Trey Ratcliffe

Does the Chinese emissions ‘error’ matter?

By John ED Barker, Murdoch University

Recent analyses that China’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions might be 1.2 gigatonnes or 20% higher than previously estimated have generated something of a feeding frenzy in the media; and not just the daily…
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China’s emissions keep increasing, but it’s burning less fuel for every increase in GDP. Bert van Dijk

IEA reveals emissions are up again, but it’s not all bad news

By John Cook

The numbers are just in. At a time when we need to be urgently reducing our CO₂ emissions, we are now emitting more than at any time in human history. However, it’s not too late to turn things around…
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We need a more intelligent discussion about how to use our finite carbon, and it needs to be about metal. AAP

Treasure your metal: why we need to respect embedded energy

By Geoffrey Brooks, Swinburne University of Technology

The recent furore about the carbon tax in this country has not been a celebration of enlightened debate. I think much of the debate misses a vital aspect of carbon use, namely, that using carbon to make…
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State governments are walking away from emissions reduction, but it’s thanks to poor policy from the ALP. Takver/Flickr

A flawed carbon pricing scheme lets states dump climate action

By Alan Pears AM, RMIT University

In the past few days we have seen two states, Victoria and Queensland, announce cut-backs on action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They have been able to justify this by pointing out, correctly, that…
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Melting Arctic Sea ice should be the warning we need about expanding coal exports. Michael Sonnabend

On Arctic Sea ice melt and coal mine canaries

By Andrew Glikson

Despite peak global temperatures in 2005 and 2010 (unprecedented in the instrumental record), a recent sharp plunge in volume of the Arctic Sea ice and a spate of extreme weather events, coal mining, coal…
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There are limits to the amount of carbon dioxide plantations can absorb. David Clarke

How much carbon can trees absorb?

By Michael Battaglia, CSIRO

Australia’s agriculture and forestry – land-based abatement – can make a valuable contribution to lowering Australia’s greenhouse emissions. The scale of contribution has been widely discussed. But the…
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Looking at how other jurisdictions, such as Germany, are reducing emissions can help guide Australian policy. AAP

What Australia can learn from the world’s best de-carbonisation policies

By John Wiseman, University of Melbourne and Taegen Edwards, University of Melbourne

Around the world an increasing number of detailed policy road maps are demonstrating the possibility, necessity and urgency of a rapid transition to a just and sustainable post carbon future. The key barriers…
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Set the controls for the heart of the sun: recycled, programmable timber shutters on the City of Melbourne’s CH2 building. City of Melbourne

Intelligent design: time to wise up and build for the climate

By Deo Prasad

There may be no belching smoke stacks to be seen, but every time we thoughtlessly put up a poorly designed structure or resort to energy-intensive solutions to cool, heat, and operate an inefficient building…
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Modern motorists have a pile of engine choices. Flickr/ Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden

The rise of diesel: but how cheap and clean is it?

By Damon Honnery, Monash University

Like many countries, Australia is seeing a growth in the number of diesel vehicles on our roads. Since 2006 the number of registered diesel vehicles has increased by a remarkable 40%; diesel passenger…
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Some jurisdictions are pushing for aviation emissions controls, but an international agreement seems far away. Cardiff Friends of the Earth

See you in court: solving aviation emissions is an international mess

By David Hodgkinson, University of Western Australia

Aviation is a growing source of emissions. Emissions from aviation are increasing against a background of decreasing emissions from many other industry sectors. Airlines – with their international reach…
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Times have changed; the car industry needs to catch up. aussiefordadverts/Flickr

Australian car industry needs lower emissions, not handouts

By Anna Mortimore, Griffith University

The Australian Government has been bailing out automotive manufacturers since 1985. Both that year’s Button Plan and the 2008 Bracks Report recommended restructure and additional funding. But unless the…
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An ice-free world isn’t impossible – even though it seems the stuff of science fiction. Alistair Knock

As emissions rise, we may be heading for an ice-free planet

By Andrew Glikson

Last December’s meeting of the American Geophysical Union featured three of the world’s leading climate scientists: James Hansen (NASA’s chief climate scientist), Elco Rohling (National Oceanography Centre…
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It’s time to slice through the chit-chat and reach an agreement on aviation emissions. donbuciak

Is anyone tough enough to push through an aviation emissions agreement?

By Gabriel Sanchez, DePaul University

DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: Whatever fruits ripen out of the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference in Durban, a global aviation emissions agreement is unlikely to be among them. Thus far, Durban…
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Is Australia going down the East Asian high-rise route? eugene

The carbon devil in the detail on urban density

By Jago Dodson, Griffith University

How dense could we be? Very, if you follow much of the commentary in Australian debates about the way we should plan our cities. High-rise residential developments have been springing up in all Australia…
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She’s got the book, but did she read it? Ross Garnaut explains the advice he gave. AAP

Ross Garnaut discusses the economics behind the carbon tax

By Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol; Carmen Lawrence, University of Western Australia, and Ross Garnaut, University of Melbourne

Top Conversation author Professor Stephan Lewandowsky and former Western Australian Premier Carmen Lawrence were part of a group that sat down with Ross Garnaut during his recent visit to UWA. During…
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Believe it or not, sulphur emissions are keeping us cooler. lillicomanche/flickr

Beyond two degrees celsius: sulphur won’t save us for long

By Andrew Glikson

The Earth energy balance – the difference between energy/heat absorbed by the Earth from solar radiation and the energy/heat emitted back to space – is currently offset by the cooling effect of sulphur…
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Sound the alarm. It’s a scientist’s job to alert the public to the threats of climate change. AAP

Speaking science to climate policy

By James Risbey, CSIRO

CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: CSIRO’s James Risbey explains why it’s not “alarmist” to describe the threat of climate change to the public and how the climate system will respond to half measures. With…
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An oil extraction project in Canada – a country absent from the Productivity Commission’s carbon report. AAP

An emissions reduction policy beyond comparison?

By Sinclair Davidson, RMIT University

One of the most basic questions to ask in any analysis of Australia’s carbon policy has always been: what is the rest of the world doing? Last week, the Productivity Commission (PC) published a partial…
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The decade ending 2010 was the warmest on record for Australia. AAP

The greenhouse effect is real: here’s why

By Karl Braganza, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Bureau of Meteorology scientist Karl Braganza explains why we know the climate is changing, and what’s causing it. In public discussions of climate change, the full range…
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Europe is leading the world in renewable technology. AAP

Bleak emissions outlook points to a renewable future

By Patrick Hearps, University of Melbourne and Dylan McConnell, University of Melbourne

This week, unpublished estimates from the International Energy Institute showed that 2010 was the most carbon-intensive year in human history. Chief Economist of the IEA Dr Fatih Birol responded to the…
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There is a compelling business case to reduce emissions, both here and globally. AAP

The business case for reducing greenhouse gas emissions

By John Freebairn, University of Melbourne

A combination of science and economics provide compelling reasons for policy initiatives and decisions by businesses and households to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The arguments are strongest…
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The move away from nuclear energy may be counterproductive. Greenpeace Finland

We can’t abandon nuclear now

By George Dracoulis

It won’t surprise many people that world carbon emissions have failed to slow down, but the fact we’re now at risk of surpassing targets set for nine years hence, intended to limit the global rise in temperature…

Research and News (2)

Research Briefs (19)

Carbon released at highest ever rates

Penn State University

The rate of release of carbon into the atmosphere is nearly ten times as fast as during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum…

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